Talking Chicken – A Guide to Common Terms

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by Lisa Steele When you start raising chickens, you are bound to run into terms, abbreviations and phrases that might seem like a foreign language at first. Here is my non-scientific, layman’s guide to some of the more common terms and their meanings:

Apple Cider Vinegar (otherwise known as ACV) – Multipurpose general health elixir, used as an additive to chickens’ water

Bantam– A miniature version of a standard breed, usually 1/4 to 1/2 the size of a standard, however not all breeds have a bantam version

Bloom – The natural coating on an eggshell that provides a barrier and prevents air and bacteria from passing through the pores in the shell

Broody – A hen who’s natural instinct to sit on eggs until they hatch and then raise the chicks has kicked in

Brooder – The heated box or other container that chicks are kept warm in and raised in before they are old enough to be outside

Bumblefoot – A bacterial infection similar to a staph infection on the bottom of a hen’s foot that is characterized by a black scab, often caused by a small cut or a hard landing off the roost

Candling – The act of shining a light on a fertilized egg to determine if the embryo is developing correctly. The term originated from the practice of using an actual candle; now flashlights or commercial candlers are used.

Clutch – A collection of eggs that a hen ‘hoards’ in order to amass enough to start sitting on and ultimately hatching them

Coccidia – An intestinal parasite that infects chickens, causing bloody diarrhea and often death, mainly in young birds

Cockerel – A male chicken, usually less than a year old

Comb – The flexible, usually red, protuberence on top of a chicken’s head which in part helps them regulate their body temperature

Coop – Chicken house, hen house; where the chickens spent the night

Crop – Holding area in the esophagus where food is deposited after eating, then ground up and softened before continuing on to the stomach

Diatomaceous Earth (otherwise known as DE) -Ground fossils that can be added to chickens’ feed and dust bath area to control parasites

Easter Egger (otherwise known as EE) – Mixed breed Ameraucana or Araucana chickens, who lay a colorful array of egg colors from bluish-green to green, pink to brown or cream, not being purebred blue-egg layers

Egg Bound – The state of a hen who is unable to lay an egg which can be life-threatening if not treated

Egg tooth – The sharp knob at the tip of a chick’s beak that it uses to crack through the eggshell in order to hatch

Frizzle – A chicken with curled or twisted feathers

Grit – Small stones, pebbles, coarse dirt or sand that chickens eat and store in their crop to assist in digesting their food

Hackles – A chicken’s neck feathers

Incubate/incubator – To hatch eggs in an artificial environment instead of under a hen

Keel – The bony ridge along the breast bone

Molt – The annual process chickens go through in which they lose their old feathers and grow new ones in anticipation of the cold winter weather

Nesting Box – A wooden, metal or plastic box, usually in the coop, where hens are encouraged to lay their eggs

Pecking Order – The rigid social order within a flock that dictates hierarchy between each hen. Those higher in the pecking order can peck those below them and have first choice of treats, feed and a spot on the roosting bars.

Pip – The initial hole a chick breaks in the eggshell as it begins to hatch so it can begin to breathe outside air

Point of Lay (otherwise known as POL) – A pullet of laying age, usually around 20-24 weeks old

Pullet – Older than a chick, younger than a hen, pullet usually refers to a bird less than a year old

Roost – (n) The pole or branch in the coop where the chickens sleep; (v) the act of sleeping on the pole or branch

Run – Yard or outside area where the chickens spend their days if they aren’t free range, normally attached to the coop or built around the coop

Saddle Feathers– A chicken’s lower back feathers where the back meets the tail

Scratch – A grain/corn mix fed as a cold weather treat

Sex-Link/Sexing– Sex link chicks are able to be separated into males and females at birth by their coloring; sexing is the process used to determine the sex of a newly hatched chick

Sickles – A rooster’s tail feathers

Spurs– Sharp talons on the back of a rooster’s legs, mainly used for protection or fighting

Vent– The rear opening through which both excrement and eggs pass, although the egg travels down the oviduct to the vent, while excrement travels down the intestine

Wattles – The two rubbery red protusions under a chicken’s beak which help in part to regulate a hen’s body temperature

Zip – The crack a hatching chick makes in the eggshell so it can push itself out of the egg

Now you can ‘talk chicken’ with the best of ’em!

Are there any other terms you have learned since you began your chicken keeping journey?